Clinton Oks New Rules Regulating Air Pollution

Under The Rules, Which Congress Could Veto, The Air In More Than 400 Counties Would Be Deemed Unsafe.

June 26, 1997|By Los Angeles Times

NASHVILLE, TENN. — After seven months of the most contentious environmental debate in years, President Clinton decided Wednesday to impose strict new standards designed to clean smog and soot from the air above U.S. cities and rural lands.

The standards are intended to reduce the number of deaths, illnesses and lost work days linked to air pollution - even at the potentially expensive cost of restricting motor vehicles and installing new power plant technology.

The decision stunned environmentalists, who were expecting Clinton to weaken the proposal put forward in November by the Environmental Protection Agency. It disappointed business and industry, which had contended that the new requirements were too onerous. Clinton's action also pits him against many of the nation's mayors, who fear the economic impact that could follow.

Congress, whose members have expressed sharp opposition to the plan, has the authority to veto it. But a showdown is unlikely because it could put legislators in the politically awkward position of seeming to vote against youngsters, the elderly and others susceptible to respiratory diseases aggravated by air pollution.

The measure will force cities and states to mount aggressive, costly efforts to clean up air pollution over the next 15 years.

The new national limits mean that the air in more than 400 counties will be deemed unsafe.

EPA Administrator Carol Browner argued throughout the angry debate over the standards that scientific findings allowed her no room to soften the original proposal, and Clinton ultimately agreed. But the program will not be fully implemented for at least 15 years.

Under the Clean Air Act, the government is required to set standards for air quality and update them based on scientific studies - without consideration of the economic impact. The standards establish the levels at which air is considered too dirty to be healthful.

Critics of the stricter standards, particularly those in an industry coalition supported by major utility companies and manufacturers, argued in a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign that research findings are not clear about the impact soot and smog have on health.

Others said the new standards would lead to bans on the use of barbecues, fireworks and lawn mowers as towns, cities and counties sought to eliminate sources of air pollution.

About 411 counties would exceed the new standards for soot or smog or both; 134 counties violate existing limits. Failure by states to bring localities into compliance over the next 15 years could result in such harsh federal sanctions as a freeze on federal highway funds.

Under a multiple-step timetable, however, communities will have more than a decade and a half to reduce air pollution - by encouraging reduced use of automobiles by, for example, imposing river-crossing tolls in New York City or building mass transit systems in California, and by converting power plants to cleaner fuels.

The EPA predicts the plan will save 15,000 people from premature death and prevent several hundred thousand asthma attacks and cases of bronchitis, especially among children.

It estimates the controls will cost businesses and consumers $6.6 billion to $8.5 billion a year beginning in 2007. Industry groups have predicted the cost could be 10 times higher.